Through Three Campaigns | Page 4

he listened to the sepoys talking of the expeditions
in which they had taken part.
"It would be splendid to go," he said to himself, "but I don't see how
the colonel could take me. I shall certainly ask him, when the time
comes; but I feel sure that he will refuse. Of course, I ought to be
starting before long for Calcutta; but the expedition will probably not
last many weeks and, if I were to go with it, the excitement would keep
me from thinking, and do me a lot of good. Besides, a few weeks could
make no difference in my working up for the examination."
The more he thought of it, the more he felt determined to go with the
column. He felt sure that he could disguise himself so that no one
would suspect who he was. He had been so long associated with the
regiment that he talked Punjabi as well as English.
His father had now been dead two months and, as the rumours from
across the frontier grew more and more serious, he was filled with fear
lest an opportunity should occur to send him down country before the
regiment marched; in which case all his plans would be upset. Day after
day passed, however, without his hearing anything about it, till one day
the colonel sent for him.

"The time has come, lad, when we must part. We shall all be very sorry
to lose you, but it cannot be helped. I have received orders, this
morning, to go up to Chitral; and am sending down some sick, at once.
You must start with them. When you reach the railway, you will be
able to get a through ticket to Calcutta.
"As long as it was likely that we should be going down ourselves, I was
glad to keep you here; but now that we have got orders to go off and
have a talk with these tribes in the north, it is clearly impossible for us
to keep you any longer. I am very sorry, my boy, for you know we all
like you, for your own sake and for your good father's."
"I am awfully obliged to you all, colonel. You have been very good to
me, since my father was killed. I feel that I have had no right to stop
here so long; but I quite understand that, now you are moving up into
the hills, you cannot keep me.
"I suppose I could not go as a volunteer, colonel?" he asked, wistfully.
"Quite impossible," the colonel said, decidedly. "Even if you had been
older, I could not have taken you. Every mouth will have to be fed, and
the difficulties of transport will be great. There is no possibility,
whatever, of our smuggling a lad of your age up with us.
"Besides, you know that you ought to go to England, without further
delay. You want to gain a commission, and to do that you must pass a
very stiff examination, indeed. So for your own sake, it is advisable
that you should get to work without any unnecessary delay.
"A party of invalids will be going down tomorrow, and you can go with
them as far as Peshawar. There, of course, you will take train either to
Calcutta or Bombay. I know that you have plenty of funds for your
journey to England. I think you said that it was an uncle to whom you
were going. Mind you impress upon him the fact that it is absolutely
necessary that you should go to a first-rate school or, better still, to a
private crammer, if you are to have a chance of getting into the service
by a competitive examination."

"Very well, colonel. I am sure that I am very grateful to you, and all the
officers of the regiment, for the kindness you have shown me,
especially since my father's death. I shall always remember it."
"That is all right, Lisle. It has been a pleasure to have you with us. I am
sure we shall all be sorry to lose you, but I hope that some day we shall
meet again, when you are an officer in one of our regiments."
Lisle returned to the bungalow and called the butler, the only servant he
had retained.
"Look here, Robah, the colonel says that I must go down with a sick
party, tomorrow. As I have told you, I am determined to go up country
with the troops. Of course, I must be in disguise. How do you think that
I had better go?"
The man shook his head.
"The young sahib had better join his friends in England."
"It is useless to talk about that," Lisle said. "I have told you I mean to
go